Phantom 3 Standard Crappy Range

[Joey Migliaccio]

Hi everyone, I just bought a used DJI Phantom 3 Standard. My max range is about 120m (before update in park around wifi, I thought that the P3S could go to 500m around houses!!!). Then I updated to the dreaded 1.6.8.0 thing. Went to a street full of WiFi and my max range decreased from 500ft, to 389.9 ft. WTF??? Whats even weirder is that my RC signal is just fine, my video just randomly cuts out and says, "No signal". Can fly it back manually just fine. And when it cuts out, I have full bars. I tried everything. Re linking RC, WiFi, atti mode, opening the controller, charging it, different antenna positions, using an older go app, everything. I want to sling it into the air with no battery extremely frustrating please help!!!

P.S, used phantom was like 2 runs old.

 

[knipfer]

There are tons of posts about this issue right now. I would strongly suggest trying a different location to get better results.


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[dirtybum]

You mean you haven't tried this yet

 

[The Springs]

There are lots of Standard owners with similar problems . Mine was getting 230m range new and I can fly where there isn't a house or trees within 3km . I put a DBS booster on mine which increased it to 700m if I was lucky .I really think it's a quality control problem since there are some guys that have good ones .I am just going to sell mine and get an Advanced.

 

[Stiggy Pop]

What quality issues would drive such a variation in range? Environmental issues seem more plausible. I fly in a semi-rural area with trees and have gotten 1,000m on a stock standard.

 

[Joey Migliaccio]

What quality issues would drive such a variation in range? Environmental issues seem more plausible. I fly in a semi-rural area with trees and have gotten 1,000m on a stock standard.

This is so stupid. I am going to try an isolated beach but 500 ft max range and 389.9 feet max range is terrible, even in an urban area. This got worse range that my parrot bebop wifi smartphone drone lol!!! Going to try my old iPhone 5S because my Samsung Galaxy s5
phone once glitched out on my bebop and locked the screen and made it crash into a house. Will also try windsurfer.

 

[Joey Migliaccio]

I guess I could try replacing this. $18 for wifi antenna inside phantom. Inside the controller looked fine.
DJI Wi-Fi Video Link Antenna for Phantom 3 Standard CP.PT.000284

 

[dirtybum]

I guess I could try replacing this. $18 for wifi antenna inside phantom. Inside the controller looked fine.
DJI Wi-Fi Video Link Antenna for Phantom 3 Standard CP.PT.000284

You can replace it if you want but I've never seen one go bad

 

[Joey Migliaccio]

You can replace it if you want but I've never seen one go bad

Since the controller is fine, and RC link is fine, it has to be a loose wire inside or this. How hard is it to open up a Phantom? This could solve many people's range issues. But first, more testing.

 

[RodPad]

You mean you haven't tried this yetView attachment 58611

Does your landing pad have lights so you can see it at night?
You need to figure out how to use all that RF energy to charge the batteries in flight.

 

[dirtybum]

Since the controller is fine, and RC link is fine, it has to be a loose wire inside or this. How hard is it to open up a Phantom? This could solve many people's range issues. But first, more testing.

If you just want to test it to see if those ones are bad you don't have to open up the Phantom, you just need to remove where they plug into the camera and plug some different type of 2.4 antennas into the camera, that would save you a lot of trouble from opening up the PIII Shell, which can be a challenge.